1. Field of Invention
This invention relates generally to farming equipment and more specifically to a multi-purpose farm trailer that can transport and unload large round hay bales or in its flat condition can transport rectangular bales or farm machinery.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Modern day farming requires an assortment of machines for performing a variety of tasks and it is desirable to have machines that have multiple functions. Farming today requires trailers that can haul hay bales and farm machinery legally on the highways.
With the advent of the large round hay bales that cannot be manually lifted, there is the additional requirement of a loader which lifts the 1,000 to 1,500 pound round bales for placement on a wagon or trailer that transports the bales to a storage location. Round bales are typically stored with the axis of the bale horizontal just as they are dropped by the bailer in the field. They are usually transported on trailers one or two rows wide, with each bale end to end to the next bale. The farmer must make a second trip to and from the field to bring the loader to the storage facility to unload or they must have a second loader located at the storage facility. A hay wagon which will unload the bales without the assistance of a loader, eliminates the need for a loader at the storage facility. In prior times hay wagons were typically small and carried a limited number of bales thus requiring many trips from the field to the storage facility. Large round bales require special support surfaces on wagons when transporting such as cradles which prevent them from rolling off the wagon. Current hay trailers such as the present invention can be towed by pickup trucks rather than farm tractors and are capable of carrying much heavier loads due to their size, thus reducing the number of trips from the field to the storage facility.
The concept of bale carriers which self-eject is not new as taught in the patents to Rader, U.S. Pat. No. 5,076,752; Druse, U.S. Pat. No. 5,277,537; Farden, U.S. Pat. No. 5,180,271; and Flaskey, 5,340,259. The last mentioned patent to Flaskey also provides apparatus on the trailer for loading the bales, as well as unloading them. The patent to Druse teaches a large capacity trailer which ejects single bales at a time. The patent to Farden teaches a mechanical latching device which releases a full row of bales or two rows if piled three high.
The patent to Rader teaches a wagon which is suitable for hauling round bales and unloading the bales, and, lastly, provides a configuration for feeding the hay off the wagon as a feed bunk. Like most of the other unloading structures in the above-mentioned patents, Rader drops one wing in a cradle configuration allowing the bale to roll off the wagon.
Round bale trailers must be operable over roadways as well as in the field and therefore must comply with the rules and regulations applicable to trailers that move on public roadways. Round bale handling apparatus comprises a variety of different methods and structures, such as those that squeeze the ends on both sides before lifting; others spear the center of the bales, and others extend a fork underneath the bale in a typical forklift configuration. Whatever the handling apparatus is, requires a substantial structure and machine for lifting and then transporting a half-ton bale of hay. A typical arrangement would be a farm tractor with a loader on its front end.
The bale carrier trailer of the present invention carries and unloads round bales as well as large rectangular bales when the trailer is in its flat bed configuration. This permits the farmer to utilize the same trailer for various types and sizes of bales. In its flat bed configuration, the trailer can also transport farm machinery which are driven up a pair of ramps stored under the bed of the trailer. When the operator decides to haul large round bales, he merely manually elevates the inner deck sections of the trailer to their elevated angular position providing two rows of a cradle along with the pivotally mounted side walls of the trailer.
It is therefore the principal object of the present invention to provide a hay bale trailer which transports both round and rectangular bales.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a round bale trailer which can quickly be modified to a conventional flat bed trailer for hauling various farm machines or any other material.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a multiple use farm trailer which is approved for highway transportation.